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Integrating Medical Humanities into medical school training

2019; Springer Nature; Volume: 20; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.15252/embr.201948830

1469-3178

Maurizio Bifulco, Simona Pisanti,

Innovations in Medical Education

Opinion30 October 2019free access Integrating Medical Humanities into medical school training Maurizio Bifulco Corresponding Author [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0002-1771-4531 Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy Search for more papers by this author Simona Pisanti [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-1383-7929 Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry “Scuola Medica Salernitana”, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy Search for more papers by this author Maurizio Bifulco Corresponding Author [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0002-1771-4531 Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy Search for more papers by this author Simona Pisanti [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-1383-7929 Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry “Scuola Medica Salernitana”, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy Search for more papers by this author Author Information Maurizio Bifulco *,1 and Simona Pisanti2 1Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy 2Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry “Scuola Medica Salernitana”, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy EMBO Rep (2019)20:e48830https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201948830 PDFDownload PDF of article text and main figures. ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InMendeleyWechatReddit Figures & Info A discussion about the future of medicine must crucially address the need to evolve and adapt the teaching of medicine. Medical school curricula must not only keep up with scientific and technological developments in biomedical research, which have an enormous impact on health care, but also emphasize a holistic view that takes into account the human dimension of disease along with the doctor–patient relationship. The emerging “omics” sciences—genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and so on—and their potential clinical applications will dramatically transform medicine and patient care in the near future. However, the speed with which these technologies are advancing has left an increasing gap between scientific progress and implementation into clinical practice. Even well-trained physicians find it difficult to interpret genetic tests or pharmacogenomic data, or explain test results to their patients, which renders these powerful diagnostic tools underused or even misused 1. To close this gap, it is fundamental to introduce these concepts and technologies in medical school curricula 2. Currently, most medical schools around the world cover molecular biology and biotechnology along with genetics mostly in a basic and mechanistic way in preclinical courses. For future physicians, who will practice in the era of precision medicine, it would be more useful to learn and apply these concepts through an active learning approach during the clinical phase of education, where they can put these into practice on real patients. Moreover, the emerging discipline of medical bioinformatics requires that medical students become just as skilled in computational tools and analysing and interpreting data as in physiopathology and patient care. Obviously, the clinician is not required to replace bioinformaticians, geneticists or other experts, since medical care already benefits from multidisciplinarity and team working. However, physicians need to enhance their professional skills in order to be able to pool molecular, genetic, clinical data along with behavioural, socio-cultural and ethical aspects into a framework of health and disease, patient care and response to therapy. From this perspective, the biomedical sciences and the humanities and social sciences may inform teaching in a synergistic way to create the groundwork for a construction and productive relationship between physicians and their patients. Such a relationship needs to include inter-individual diversity, the socio-cultural characteristics of each person, and their attitudes towards disease and health care. It is also fundamental to embrace a more holistic view of health that includes disease prevention and psychological support for patients who are dealing with the mental challenges induced by the disease. The humanities and social sciences therefore have much to offer to reform the education of health workers so as to better embrace the full complexity of health and disease. The methodological approach to jointly develop such diverse competences is certainly a challenge. However, the methods are already available from the Medical Humanities, which can crucially contribute to improve the education and training of future healthcare providers. The Medical Humanities are characterized by multidisciplinary approaches that include the study of History of Medicine and Science, Philosophy of Medicine, Medical Ethics, Deontology and Bioethics, Cultural and Medical Anthropology, Medical Museology and Health, Sociology of Medicine, Medical Pedagogy, Paleopathology, Psychology, Medicine in Arts, Literature, Poetry and Creative Writing. These disciplines, each of which has a recognized role in healthcare providers’ education, may enable a holistic and integrated approach to care and caring for the patient, helping clinicians to become kinder and more reflective. Several medical schools, mainly in the West and in smaller measure in the East, already offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Medical Humanities 3. These courses are mainly history of medicine, bioethics or psychology. Other interesting curriculars offer additional course in literature, poetry, writing and arts to enhance students’ empathy, altruism and attention to social and cultural issues. Courses about Philosophy of Death, Dying and Grief help to prepare medical students to face these fundamental aspects of their work with greater awareness. However, such courses are mainly electives or, if mandatory, give only few credits. Moreover, many students are already overwhelmed by the scientific and clinical courses, and often underestimate the importance of the Medical Humanities 4. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the Medical Humanities are needed to empower future physicians with skills that are fundamental for their profession—empathy, altruism, compassion and caring towards patients—and highlight the moral, spiritual, cultural and societal aspects of medicine. Academic institutions need to revise the medical curricula to incorporate the medical humanities along with more courses to cover biomedical research and technologies, and to educate more accomplished physicians who are able to deliver modern medicine and make a real impact on health service standards. References 1. Klitzman R, Chung W, Marder K, Shanmugham A, Chin LJ, Stark M, Leu CS, Appelbaum PS (2013) J Genet Couns 22: 90–100Wiley Online LibraryPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 2. Wilcox RL, Adem PV, Afshinnekoo E, Atkinson JB, Burke LW, Cheung H, Dasgupta S, DeLaGarza J, Joseph L, LeGallo R et al (2018) Per Med 15: 199–208CrossrefCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 3. Banaszek A (2011) CMAJ 183: E441–E442CrossrefPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 4. Agarwal A, Wong S, Sarfaty S, Devaiah A, Hirsch AE (2015) Med Educ Online 20: 26615CrossrefPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Previous ArticleNext Article Read MoreAbout the coverClose modalView large imageVolume 20,Issue 12,05 December 2019Caption: Structure Illumination Microscopy on Toxoplasma gondii parasites during host cell invasion. The parasites are highly polarized during this process with the subpellicular microtubules (red) at the apical pole and F‐actin (green) accumulated at the posterior pole and around the nucleus (purple). This organization suggests a push‐and‐pull mechanism enabling nuclear entry during host cell invasion. By Mario Del Rosario, Markus Meissner and colleagues: Apicomplexan F‐actin is required for efficient nuclear entry during host cell invasion. Scientific image by Mario Del Rosario, Wellcome Centre For Integrative Parasitology, Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation, Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK Volume 20Issue 125 December 2019In this issue ReferencesRelatedDetailsLoading ...